Content note: This article contains descriptions and images of graphic threats that include slurs and descriptions of sexual assault.

What’d you do last weekend? Oh, that sounds fun. Yeah, I’m glad you had a nice time. Me? Oh, not much. I just spent three days reporting the myriad rape and death threats I received over social media.

See, I accidentally broke the news about my secret gun vaporizer on Twitter. The gun vaporizer—a real thing that totally exists—modifies the molecular makeup of firearms and renders them into airy nothingness. Of course, the gun vaporizer has its limitations: It cannot vaporize all the guns at once. I mean, it’s not like this is science fiction here. Perhaps unfortunately for white men, their predilection for committing mass murder has put their weapons first in line for vaporization under the evil matriarchal regime of which I am the ruling despotress.

I understand that when the white men see their guns disappear into thin air before their very eyes—a fate that most certainly awaits them, due to the actual existence of an actual gun vaporizer over which I have complete actual control—they may feel distress or sadness. This is why my evil matriarchal regime will be collecting white men’s tears during the vaporization process, for research purposes and also to sweeten the beverage of my people: a strong tea brewed of oppression and misandry. It is, of course, naturally very bitter.

You may, at this point, get the feeling that I’m pulling your leg. You may understand me to be joking. You may rightly perceive that gun vaporizers do not exist, and by extension deduce that I do not own one, nor do I intend to use it, on a white guy’s gun or anybody else’s.

If that is the case, you are leaps and bounds ahead of the Daily Caller’s political reporter, Patrick Howley, who apparently felt he got the scoop of the century when he discovered my public tweets on my public Twitter profile following the news that a white man had gone on a shooting rampage in Mesa, Arizona. He then crafted 188 credulous words about my nefarious plans. As a result, hundreds of angry white guys descended upon my Twitter and Facebook accounts over the weekend—helped along by the fact that the libertarian-bro clearinghouse Infowars and the white supremacist Nazi group Stormfront both picked up the Caller‘s, uh, “story”—demanding that I rescind my plans to vaporize all the world’s guns starting with the white guys’, and threatening to rape and murder me if I did not comply.

Many members of the Daily Caller‘s esteemed readership suggested I “come and take it” and provided other variations on the theme—”I will shoot your smelly ass dead” was a colorful one—even though the whole point of the vaporizer is to ensure that there’s nothing to “come and take,” as it were. Still more of these guys seemed unduly fixated on the fact that I’m a fat lady, though one apparent stalker who claimed to be following me around the park seemed to think I looked pretty good, regardless.

I posted screenshots of these threats to my own Facebook and Twitter, just in case any of these guys decided to actually try and act on any of them—many came from members of the Open Carry Tarrant County group, based out of my own hometown. I wanted a paper trail, and I didn’t want the admins and moderators at Facebook and Twitter to be the only ones who knew where it was.

I also just plain wanted folks to see the kind of boiling, bubbling bullshit I had to put up with just because men can’t take a joke—even though, as the stereotype goes, it is feminists who are the humorless fun police. I make a crack about a non-existent gun vaporizer, and some guy named Mark suggests forcibly removing my “bloody tampons & apply the crusted blood &piss as makeup” on my “nasty face.”

Let me run that one by you again. A guy hears a joke second-, third-, maybe even fourth-hand, and his reaction is to fantasize about assaulting me with my own bodily fluids.

Perhaps this man sees himself as one of the apocryphal “good guys with a gun” who the NRA claims are necessary to stop crime. So too, the good-hearted brothers, sons and fathers of Open Carry Tarrant County, who, by some group members’ own admission, want to use my picture for target practice.

Good guys with guns, indeed. Certainly what we need are more reasonable, cool-headed men like these running around a grocery store with pistols just in case any “bad guys” show up.

Many of my guy friends were horrified. They expressed sympathy and fear on my behalf. Several of them—independent of each other, guys who wouldn’t know the others to say hello at the corner store—offered assistance, should I need it. They sent me their phone numbers “just in case” and let me know that they would be on the scene in minutes if anything scary were to happen.

I appreciate these demonstrations. I’m glad and proud to know men like these guys. They are good dudes. But giving me a phone number doesn’t stop men who hate women from threatening to rape and murder me.

I don’t need men to individually and personally step up to protect me. I need them to collect their fellow dudes and actively work, every day, to end widespread cultural misogyny and to improve the lives of non-cisgender-dude people the world over.

Good dudes of the world, please hear me out: Not actively being a sexist shitbag as an individual is not enough. Because somewhere, somehow, the guys who dedicated themselves to harassing me—many of them under their real names on Facebook—have brothers, dads, uncles, golf buddies, tennis partners, co-workers, favorite bartenders, and an entire universe of dude friends and acquaintances, all of whom have failed to make it clear, either through their words or their actions, that this kind of behavior is not OK.

Perhaps you will plead ignorance. Perhaps y’all didn’t know how bad it was. That’s fair, and I am sympathetic to that. Often, women who are harassed are told to ignore it (this is actually one of the suggested responses that Twitter provided after I reported the guy who told me he hopes I get “gunned down in the street”), to keep it quiet, to just pretend like it doesn’t exist and it’ll all go away. I have done that on many occasions. I probably even do it on most occasions, because if I re-tweeted every creepy rape threat I got, it would fill up a quarter of my feed.

But I’m telling you now. I’m showing you now. Now you know.

Now you can do something about it. You can start by sharing this very article with your guy friends, so that they too will no longer live in ignorance. You can read and share this fantastic, in-depth piece from my colleague Imani Gandy, detailing her two-year ordeal trying to keep a dedicated online stalker at bay. You can read about Lindy West’s travails trying to report threats of gendered violence.

Looking for more than just a first-person account? There’s plenty of research available concerning gendered harassment online. Have a gander at this piece in Time. Or this one in Slate. Or this one in the Pacific Standard.

And you can talk about them, proactively, with your buddies. Because I know how guys talk. They talk like people, right? They talk about politics and beer and clothes and good shit they read on the Internet today. They share how they think and feel about things. Do that.

Take five or ten minutes out of that conversation you were about to have about Ted Cruz and talk about how fucked up misogyny is instead. Talk about the statistics on gendered violence online and off. Let your guy friends know that dudes are spewing this kind of virulent shit at people like me, and that you don’t stand for it, and that you won’t stand for the men you know doing it—or ignoring it. You have to end the culture of ignorance and silence that allows guys to comfortably engage in this kind of harassment.

I mean, sure, gather your roommates around the kitchen table to watch the funny video of the dog who can’t catch a damn piece of pizza, but also make an effort to consume and share media created by people who aren’t cisgender guys. Read books written by people who don’t look like you. Watch movies directed by people who don’t just reflect your own experiences back to you.

And then talk about them with your friends, and engage with them just as you would with anything else you liked, or didn’t like, or felt confused by. Women are people, for fuck’s sake. We’re more than just your moms and wives and partners and daughters: We create things, we have stories to tell. When we are only seen as sexual objects (note how many times guys lobbed “gutter slut” and variations at me), or delicate flowers to be protected, we lose our agency and our humanity, and harassment like this is allowed to live on.

I am asking you to do a very simple thing. I am asking you to not be a sexist jerk, and I am asking you to be deliberately public about it.

Be the guy in front of whom the next Mark knows he can’t get away with threatening to assault someone with a bloody tampon. Don’t just talk to me about misogyny. Talk to him about misogyny. Call out your friends. Be brave. Women can’t make this cultural shift happen all on our own.

Because Mark, and guys like him, aren’t listening to me. But they might listen to you, and you never know when they’re paying attention.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has agreed to withdraw its subpoena of an Austin woman's Twitter account after it demanded information on supposedly "terroristic" tweets she composed during the Texas legislature's special sessions earlier this summer.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has agreed to withdraw its subpoena of an Austin woman’s Twitter account after it demanded information on supposedly “terroristic” tweets she composed during the Texas legislature’s special sessions earlier this summer, when lawmakers worked to pass a highly criticized omnibus anti-abortion bill.

According to a statement released Thursday afternoon by Denise Romano’s lawyer, Texas DPS was seeking “information, documents and records related to Denise Romano’s Twitter account,” but she and her client “were able to work informally and cooperatively to get this matter resolved without the need for time consuming and costly litigation.”

Romano, a prolific tweeter who has nearly 10,000 followers and describes herself on her blog as a “proud member of the #feministarmy,” alerted her base to the subpoena last Friday afternoon in, of course, a tweet: “I am not kidding. I just got an email from @Twitter saying that #TX DPS has subpoenaed my tweets related to a terroristic threat #WTF #Fem2.”

Romano went uncharacteristically silent after alerting her thousands of followers to the subpoena while she and her lawyer negotiated with DPS. During that time, her supporters expressed universal disbelief that anything Romano had tweeted could be considered “terroristic” in nature and jokingly referenced the “tampongate” incident at the state capitol in July, during which DPS officers spent an hour and a half confiscating tampons and maxi pads from women entering the Texas senate gallery.

In Thursday’s statement, Romano’s lawyer said her client “wishes to express her deeply felt gratitude for the enormous outpouring of support and offers of assistance.”

Last week one of my students called me “old school.” She’s right. Today’s young people have more computing power in their pockets than I could have found anywhere on my campus. And medical professionals are taking advantage, using text messaging and social media to help teenage patients prevent STDs. It makes sense that my old tri-fold pamphlet is obsolete. This week an article in the New York Times highlights physicians who use texting and Facebook to care for young patients. And a study in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that Facebook can be effective in promoting condom use among young people.

Dr. Text

Dr. Natasha Burgert, a pediatrician in Kansas City, uses both texting and social media to provide care to her adolescent patients. She brings her i-Pad into the exam room in order to bring up information on various health topics, including STDs. She occasionally watches relevant videos with her patients. Her exam room has no brochures but numerous hyperlinks and Quick Response codes that link to “…teenager-friendly material on sexuality, alcohol, and drugs. The teenagers can photograph the board with their phones, storing the information to peruse in private.” She also writes a blog, and patients follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Burgert says, “I do as much as I can to get it on their phones, because that is what they live and die for.” She told the Times that she does get parents’ permission “… because she doesn’t want them checking a child’s phone and chancing upon sites about, say, sexually transmitted diseases.”

When Burgert communicates with her patients by text she keeps it innocuous to ensure privacy. A recent text to a patient read, “Everything is great. Go ahead with the plan we discussed. Please reply so I know you received.” She says the extra work is worth it because it can “… help patients make good, healthy decisions.” Burgert says her teen patients realize that texting with her is a privilege and tend not to take advantage of it (a claim she cannot make for first-time parents of her newborn patients).

I asked Elizabeth Casparian, executive director of Hi-Tops, a Princeton-based adolescent-health-and-education organization, about texting with teens:

“In our experience working with young people ages 13 to 26, we have found that they use their cell phones for everything. Email is an outdated mode of communication with this group. Text messaging is the best way to privately remind them about appointments and to find them when we need them to come in for treatment or test results.”

According to the Times, some doctors stop short of texting because of privacy laws and confidentiality. Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, a pediatrician at a clinic outside Seattle who also practices at Seattle Children’s Hospital, says that her clinic won’t let her text because such messages are not encrypted. But she does use other forms of digital media, including a Twitter account and a blog called Seattle Mama Doc. Patients ask questions on her blog. She doesn’t answer individual questions, but if she thinks other teens have similar questions, she will post a response without naming the patient who asked. She also helps patients set daily alarms on their phones to remind them to take their birth control pills. For privacy she suggests that they, “Call it strawberry.”

Elizabeth Schroeder, executive director of Answer, which runs www.sexetc.org, a sexual-health website for teens, says that using the Internet meets one of the very first requirements of health education: “be learner-centered:”

“This is where young people are and how they like to get information. It’s a brilliant strategy. Clinicians who fuse technology and social media are going to find an impact with their young patients.”

Facebook Likes

Facebook poses a challenge for health-care providers because it is less private than texting. Most physicians stop short of “friending” their teenage patients, though many suggest that parents do. Some physicians create their own Facebook pages and ask their teen patients to “Like” them so the teens can receive information. Kids Plus Pediatrics in Pittsburgh employs a communications director to manage its Facebook page and website. Most of the practice’s Facebook followers are parents, but some teens do hit the “Like” button. One of the practice’s 19 physicians explains:

The challenge is will teenagers see you as cool enough to push information that will be on their Facebook news feed? Because their friends will see it and judge them.

The new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests that Facebook “Likes” and the information that can be provided to young people through Facebook can encourage healthy sexual behavior, at least in the short term.

Researchers recruited participants from communities, local papers, and popular websites in U.S. cities that had higher-than-average rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). They focused on African-American and Latino youth because these young people are disproportionately affected by STIs. Each participant was asked to recruit three additional participants.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The intervention group signed up to “Like” Just/Us, a Facebook “community” developed to promote sexual health. Each week participants in this group learned about a new topic “… such as communicating about sexual history, skills building for condom negotiation and use, or how to access STI testing.” Youth facilitators with Just/Us provided daily updates on the topic, including video links, quizzes, blogs, and threaded discussions. Participants in the control group signed up to “Like” a page called “18-24 News,” which provided them with “… news that happened during the hours of 6 p.m. to midnight on the 24-hour clock that was of interest to 18- to 24-year-olds.” In total, 924 people were enrolled in the intervention group, and 636 people were enrolled in the control group.

Two months after the intervention, researchers asked participants in both groups whether they had used condoms the last time they’d had sex. They also asked what proportion of sex acts that participants had engaged in during the last 60 days were protected by condom use. They found that a larger percentage of the Just/Us group (68 percent) reported using a condom during the last sex act than did those in the control group (56 percent). The proportion of sex acts protected by condom use in the last 60 days showed similar results, with 63 percent of the Just/Us group reporting condom use, versus 57 percent of those in the control group.

These effects were short-lived, however; six months after the intervention, there were no differences between the two groups. Still, the researchers believe that their results show that Facebook can be an important tool for changing behavior. Sheana Bull, the lead investigator on the study, explains:

The effect size from the short-term outcomes match or exceed those observed in other Internet interventions, suggesting Facebook for sexual health interventions is at least equally effective as other technology-based mechanisms, and these effects match those observed for more traditional HIV prevention programs delivered in real-world settings.

A first step in considering how to reach the overwhelming numbers of youth online, and how to maximize approaches to technology-based interventions.

Schroeder’s organization has a strong presence on both Facebook and Tumblr. She explains that:

“Teens interact more on Facebook than on our site. Facebook becomes the place where they are hanging out and being there is how you are seen as relevant and someone who understands them.”

Schroeder adds that her organization supports unfettered access to sexuality education, and the Internet is one of the most important tools for providing it:

“We still know that it’s best when sexuality education is provided to young people by trained adults but there are still far too many adults who are invested in keeping that from happening. In some cases we need to eliminate the middle person and access young people directly.”

I use Facebook and have a Twitter account, but as a sexuality educator, I need to get more comfortable with the ways in which new technologies can help reach young people—but only if I can also admit that I kind of miss designing tri-fold brochures.

Back in the day, we talked and connected and networked to get organized. Today, led by my younger sisters, we are doing just the same. We didn't "chit and chat." We organized against the abuses of power, just as we do today. This is the best history report I could imagine reading during women’s history month. Let’s keep writing this report.

So, I took February off from blogging to get my book going. That’s my excuse for my silence of the last few weeks (in case anybody missed me!). But what I learned during this month is just what my book is about: “Every day (really, really) is election day.”

And what a glorious month of election days it’s been.

During this past month, millions of my sisters womaned the barricades, wrote articles, carried protest signs, tweeted, posted to Facebook, and otherwise expressed their outrage over the latest attempt to beat back women: the campaign to deny women birth control. Yikes. Just writing those words, “deny birth control,” makes me crazy, which is probably why I couldn’t even begin to write anything cogent. (I, whose very first student internship was at Planned Parenthood.)

Yes, Tom Watson’s, the Forbes’ writer’s basic point is a good one: Social media has enabled those of us wont to be politically active to be even more so, seemingly more frequently because social media is faster, cheaper, gets around the block without leaving the comfort of the couch, and, yes, because it’s less hierarchical. And, yes, when each one of us owns her own printing press, and the “printing costs” are negligible, that sure does create an important opportunity to spread one’s views and encourage action supporting them. (Marx was right: Owning the means of production is mighty sweet.)

But when I read this quote in the Forbes piece, by one Allison Fine: “(Today) women aren’t waiting to be told what to do or which petition to sign, they’re just doing what we do best: talking and connecting,” I went crazy all over again. I don’t have a clue who Allison Fine is when it comes to political organizing, or politics, or public policy. What her bio says is that she is an expert on social media. Fine. But this fine isn’t nearly fine enough, at least when it comes to the topic of women’s political organizing. In fact, this fine is very un-fine: “Talking and connecting (without being told what petition to sign)” is what’s been happening this last month? Not hardly. Wrong on the facts. Wrong on the message. Wrong on the goal. Wrong, if what you want to do is support your sisters.

In fact, if one looks at the volume of activity, and what actually transpired during this last month, say, signing this petition to get Rush Limbaugh off of Armed Forces radio, as well as at the success in getting major corporate sponsors to drop Rush Limbaugh, not to mention the success in changing the conversation about women’s rights, I’d say that what millions of American women–from all regions, of all ages, and of every political persuasion– have been doing this last month is way not chitting and chatting, (which is what the Fine image conjures-up to me, in the process demeaning those of us who did pass petitions instrumental to advancing women’s rights), but really smart and tough-minded political organizing.

But give Ms. Fine credit where credit is due. The primary medium for this recent organizing was social media. But the message sure wasn’t, oh gee, let’s talk and connect about the evil Mr. Limbaugh. It was, instead: Let’s talk and connect (“network”) to get rid of the guy. He is evil-incarnate, seriously bad news, and no one, but no one, should be supporting him.

Jodi Jacobson organized a tough-minded get-rid-of-the-guy campaign, and the petitions to sign to go along with it, to pressure Rush Limbaugh’s sponsors to drop him because he was spewing hate-speech, because she didn’t believe those corporations should condone such speech. She wasn’t sitting around talking and connecting, or asking the rest of us to do the same. Not hardly. She started organizing what others then worked to turn into the winningest political campaign they could, to combat and defeat this modern-day Goebbels.

And this is exactly why the new networked feminism is just like the old networked feminism. Back-in the-day, we were fighting to cripple anti-women hate-mongerers, too. We, too, called-them-out, pressed their sponsors to disaffiliate, spread our message to like-minded sisters (and brothers). It’s just that we did it with telephones and copiers and fax machines, not social media. But the impetus to action–by both generations of women activists–is exactly the same: Beat back and organize against injustice, inequality, and sexism, not to mention against just plain haters. And that’s what’s really important as we look back at February 2012, and look forward during this, 2012’s women’s history month.

My point here isn’t to quibble about the use of language. It is to speak plainly about the importance of properly characterizing a civil rights movement that continues, vigorously. We didn’t chit and chat then; we don’t chit and chat now. And, by the way, we want a mainstream media that accurately characterizes our activity for just what it is: a freedom movement of decades-long duration.

Finally, it occurs to me that the new networked feminism is just like the old networked feminism because the measure of success, like the impetus, also remains the same. In this new day, when a new generation of American women is politically aroused, it won’t be the number of social media outings, of tweets, of Facebook postings, of blogposts that will be the measure of success. Nope. Instead, the measure of success will be the willingness and fortitude to constantly confront, and seek to destroy, abusive power. Just like it always was.

Indeed, if this teachable moment, centered-around Rush Limbaugh (!), teaches us anything, it teaches us about the continuing need for deep institutional change in this country, if we are to live in a place where each of us is judged by the content of her (or his) character.

Back in the day, we talked and connected and networked to get organized. Today, led by my younger sisters, we are doing just the same. This is the best history report I could imagine reading during women’s history month. Let’s keep writing this report.

We are at an unprecedented time in history where we do not have to wait for the media to pay attention to our stories. We all have a platform; we all have followers. Through the power of mobile technology, social media, and the internet we are able to move street harassment from something that is isolating to something that is sharable.

Verbal street harassment is legal in most places around the world, but groping, flashing, and public masturbation typically are not. Regardless of the illegality of more severe forms of street harassment, women and LGBTQ individuals have historically avoided reporting these incidents to the police for several reasons.

A recent New York Times article, “Sex Crimes Pass Under the Radar on Public Transit” provides the latest examination of why street harassment remains largely underreported. While the article focuses on harassment and assault on San Francisco’s Public Transit system, the findings are similar to New York City, where a 2007 study found that 86 percent of riders assaulted on the subway do not report it to the police. At a glance, if individuals are failing to report street harassment this could mislead others into trivializing the issue. In reality victims are sharing their stories, just not with the authorities, who, when faced with such complaints vary in their degrees of helpfulness. For instance, in New York City, if you are not too traumatized by and do report being confronted with someone publically masturbating, by being groped or by being verbally attacked on public transit, police provide you with a enormous catalogue of New York’s most degenerate sex offenders to leaf through and tell you to “Name your guy.”

Instead, individuals are sharing their stories with Hollaback!.

Over the past year, we’ve collected over 3,000 stories internationally of street harassment, many of which never make it to the police. Many victims of groping and assault are reluctant to report their stories for fear of being blamed for the situation as a result of their clothes, actions or decided route home. Others worry that they will be branded a ‘victim’ or ‘weak.’ For numerous reasons some have also lost faith in the police’s ability to defend their safety and well being altogether. Particularly when authorities such as the NYPD, during the height of the Brooklyn rapist fiasco in September, are doling out such anti-rape advice as “Don’t you think your shorts are a little short?” and “You’re the exactly the kind of girl this guy is targeting.” Not only this, but faith has not been restored by ongoing police brutality and harassment, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color. Victims of street harassment are not alone in thinking this; studies show only 10-25 percent of rape cases are reported.

But even without these barriers, the legal system is a blunt tool. Prosecuting street harassment is a deterrent, but it cannot make street harassment stop altogether. Punishment will fail to deracinate the culture from which street harassment is born, a culture that deems women as objects and neglects to provide them with equal access to public spaces. To eradicate street harassment, we need to chip away at that culture. We need to build a world where the concept of street harassment looks just as absurd to us in the public domain as workplace harassment does on the hit show “Mad Men” today.

Street harassment is poised to be the next big gender issue of the decade, in the same way that workplace harassment was in the 1980s. However to achieve this, we need to tell our stories. Social movements have a long history of being ignited and advanced by people breaking their silence and sharing their stories e.g., Anita Hill’s impact on workplace harassment, Rodney King’s impact on police brutality, or Rosa Parks’s impact on the civil right movement to name a few.

We are at an unprecedented time in history where we do not have to wait for the media to pay attention to our stories. We all have a platform; we all have followers. Each story told on ihollaback.org is catapulted into the public domain to be viewed by thousands of people, but it reaches beyond that. We are using the stories submitted through our website, iPhone and Droid app to conduct research, analyze the emotional impact of street harassment and pin point it on the map. And this research and analysis translates into policy change.

Legislators are provided with a clear picture of how street harassment affects their district and are then transformed into champions for increased education and awareness. And as we seek to push street harassment into the broader cultural consciousness, our ability to elevate the voices of everyday victims on the Internet has added an unprecedented amount of traditional media attention to the issue in recent years. Through the power of mobile technology, social media, and the Internet we are able to move street harassment from something that is isolating to something that is sharable.

The Internet is a promising tool in these efforts, but it does not mean that the authorities are off the hook. From San Francisco to New York and Mumbai, police officers needs to be trained and ready to deal with street harassment and assault. They need to know how to intervene when they witness it happening, and how to support victims and connect them with the resources they need. Once officers are trained, a public service announcement campaign is needed to educate the public that reports of harassment and assault will be taken seriously by the police and transit authorities. Reports need to be made public annually by police departments, so that the public and legislators can track our collective progress on this issue and allocate resources toward the issue effectively.

Movements may start with people telling their stories, but they only become successful when power structures shift. Women and LGBTQ individuals around the world are coming forward in unprecedented numbers to share their stories. The trick in the coming years will be to get authorities, legislators, and eventually, street harassers, to listen.

So, to see the new Facebook “addition” yourself, click on “Edit my profile,” then on the left-hand side of the page, click on “Friends and Family.” There you have the option of adding the names of family members by their relative status: Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Sister, Brother and so on. You’ll also now see “Expected: Child” there.

A Facebook spokesperson said Friday the social networking site sees the add-on as “another way people can express their identity and show what’s important to them.”

I have also just learned that people set up Facebook profiles for their future babies. And by people, they apparently mean “no one I have ever been Facebook friends with, ever.”

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2011/08/01/facebook-status-knocked/feed/1Sex::Tech Conference on New Media, Youth and Sexual Healthhttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2011/04/01/live-sextech-conference-media-youth-sexual-health/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=live-sextech-conference-media-youth-sexual-health
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2011/04/01/live-sextech-conference-media-youth-sexual-health/#commentsFri, 01 Apr 2011 09:23:06 +0000Watch the Sex::Tech conference as health and technology professionals, youth, parents and community leaders discuss new media and its impact on sexual health.

]]>Sex::Tech 2011 is a two-day annual conference hosted by ISIS, Inc. that brings health and technology professionals together with youth, parents and community leaders to advance the sexual health of youth in the U.S. and abroad. Sex::Tech is the only conference event that showcases high-tech educational content (mobile, social media, Internet) developed by professionals, highlights national and local program successes, and puts youth leadership at the forefront.

Watch the live stream of the Sex::Tech conference here, the conference’s schedule is below.

Plenary #1 Friday 8:30-10 (All times Pacific)

Youth Reflect: Masculinity, Film and Social Media

This live brainstorming session features three incredible young women, Treviny, Angelica, and Angileece, who each won a Scenarios USA screenwriting contest with a script about the meaning of masculinity today. The diverse screenplays cover difficult topics such as family, sexual orientation, and aspirations as they affect young men of color coming of age. Each young woman will have 10 minutes to pitch her film, after which a roundtable of youth experts will give ideas and advice on how to use social media to advance each film’s social cause. [NOTE: The format was this panel is based on BBC’s The Good Pitch, which brings together filmmakers and organizations to further coalitions and social causes all over the world.]

The Films

The Man in the Mirror

Written by Treviny Marie Colon

Directed by Joel Schumacher, Shot by Lee Daniel, Produced by Jonathan Schumacher The film is about Jason Gutierrez, a Puerto Rican from New York City and the quintessential all-American guy. Status comes at a price as rumors spread that Jason is gay. With his identity questioned, Jason is pushed to understand who he is and prove how far he will go to prove that he’s just “one of the boys.”

Life’s Poison

Written by Angileece Williams

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, Shot by Noel Maitland, Produced by Debbie Stratis

The film is about Eliyah Howard, an 18-year-old who thinks he knows what it means to be a real man. He learned nearly everything from his abusive father. But family, love, and tragedy test the lessons he inherited. Eliyah tries to re-define what a man really is.

A Man Made Early

Written by Angelica Hernandez

Directed by Cruz Angeles, Shot by Naiti Gámez, Produced by Megan Gilbride

A Man Made Early is about a high school senior, Tony Rodriguez, who struggles with the decision of attending a college close to home or accepting a scholarship from a university in another state. Tony confronts peer pressure, cultural limitations, and family expectations to make his own decision.

Roundtable Participants

Moderator: Anastasia Goodstein, YPulse Founder, Author Totally Wired

Youth Experts:

Rachel Allen, National Alliance for Media, Arts and Culture (NAMAC)

Angelica Arreola, New America Media

Jimmy “Swift” Chen, California Chapter, DoSomething!

Amanze Emenike, New America Media

Anders Jones, Teens4Tech

Valerie Klinker, New America Media

Shelby Knox, Change.org

Bernadette Montez, TILT, Ninth Street Independent Film Center

Chantal Renous, Conscious Youth Media Crew

Jason Wyman, Youth Workers Collaborative

TECHsex USA: Friday 10:00-10:30

Deb Levine, Executive Director and Founder, ISIS

ISIS, Inc. received funding in 2010 from the Ford Foundation to begin a dialogue and better understand the environment at the intersection of youth, technology/social media, and sexual health. We wanted to dive deep… learning how youth and young adults, especially urban youth of color, use technology for their sexual and reproductive health and to figure out where the interest lies in new digital programming. ISIS, Inc. produced a white paper, now available for download at www.isis-inc.org. Deb will give an 18-minute TECHSExSF talk with highlights of this work for the first time to the audience at 2011 Sex::Tech.

Plenary #2 Friday, 2:15-3:15

mHealth: Text Messaging and Beyond

Moderator, Miles Orkin, American Cancer Society

Yin Ling Leung, Applied Research Works

Jen McCabe, Contagion Health

Amanda Mills, AOL Mobile

Jody Ranck, mHealth Alliance/ UN Foundation

Robin Whittaker, Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow

Caught wind of mHealth? It seems to be the hot new topic these days. [mHealth is the delivery of healthcare services via mobile devices.] While some of us have been integrating mHealth into our programs and services for a few years now, all of us are in need of a primer on the field and where it’s headed for the future. Listen to the mHealth experts talk about trends, devices, and best practices for mHealth, then consider how to apply what you’ve learned to advancing the field of youth sexual health.

Plenary #3 Saturday, 8:30-10

Behind the Scenes: 16 and Pregnant

Moderator: Dr. Jeff Livingston, MacArthur Ob/Gyn

Morgan J. Freeman, MTV

Dia Sokol Savage, MTV

Amy R. Kramer, The National Campaign

Katherine Suellentrop, The National Campaign

The MTV sensation “16 and Pregnant” had over 2 million viewers for its second season finale. The sister series of “16 and Pregnant”, “Teen Mom” and “Teen Mom 2,” rank as some of the most watched primetime cable programs for young people aged 12-34. There’s no question these shows have stoked a national conversation on teen pregnancy. Yet, many professionals and lay people criticize them for glamorizing teen pregnancy, perpetuating abstinence-only messaging, and class stereotypes and judgment.

This panel will take the audience at Sex::Tech 2011 on a journey of understanding the core values of “16 and Pregnant,” the depth of the partnerships developed for production of the show, and the proven research and educational value of cutting edge programming for youth around sexual health.

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2011/04/01/live-sextech-conference-media-youth-sexual-health/feed/3Breast Cancer Awareness: What Are We Buying Into?http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/10/11/breast-cancer-awareness-beyond-ribbons-status-updates/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=breast-cancer-awareness-beyond-ribbons-status-updates
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/10/11/breast-cancer-awareness-beyond-ribbons-status-updates/#commentsMon, 11 Oct 2010 06:00:00 +0000It's natural to feel good about buying a product from a company that is contributing money to a good cause like breast cancer prevention. But what are we buying into? And is it part of the problem?

]]>Breast cancer awareness has become synonymous with the ubiquitous pink ribbon. Everyone know what the pink ribbon means, it’s successfully become a logo associated with the disease. Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, you have most likely seen the pink ribbon plastered on everything from potato chips to dryer sheets to alcohol. There are numerous commercials promoting that if you buy “X” product, they will give some portion of each sold to (insert breast cancer research organization or charity here).

The Internet, as an infinite mode of spreading information, is also an active frontier for awareness raising campaigns, particularly via Facebook and Twitter. Remember a Facebook campaign is why Betty White hosted her first episode of Saturday Night Live despite having a 50+ year career in television. There were Twibbons (Twitter ribbons) that tweeters posted on their avatars (the small photo that accompanies your profile) for Haiti earthquake relief and many turned their avatars green in support of democracy in Iran during their elections last year. There’s pink ribbons available all year for breast cancer awareness. My question is what does “awareness” mean?

By now, most women from tweens to seniors know that we should be doing self-exams and checking for lumps in the shower. We know that we should get mammograms at 50, despite conflicting research. This is key information for both women and men. We also know that the branding of the color pink in October signifies breast cancer. But are we as a society using ribbons and social media to truly advance the cause?

If you’re a woman who is a Facebook user, you may have already received messages in your inbox asking you to play a “game” to raise awareness of breast cancer month. The game asks you to post in your status where you like to keep your purse. Huh? You are supposed to write in your status: “I like it on the counter” or “I like it on the desk” offering some sexual innuendo so that men Facebookers will catch on and instantly be interested in breast cancer. If you’re not making the connection between where you like “it” and breast cancer, you’re not alone. This is the latest incarnation of a earlier campaign in which women posted their bra color in their status…but at least there’s a connection with bras and breasts though the premise of “mystery” and “secrecy” is still the same.

An article on Time.com addresses the misguided idea of tantalizing men to create interest and awareness, noting that these sexually-tinged status updates get attention but not the kind that is going to inspire someone to research breast cancer. To go a step further, can’t we find a more clever way to get men’s and other women’s attention about breast cancer? For example, the awareness campaign “Save the TaTas” is flirty and effective. Getting heterosexual men to focus on breasts isn’t that tough but seriously I think we are grossly underestimating their intelligence and interest in breast cancer prevention. Many men have experienced dealing with the disease via their mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, extended family and friends. Are we also eliminating the idea of gay men as advocates and allies as well?

Also, in the arena of pseudo-dogooding, I saw this clip today on MSNBC about the idea of “pinkwashing“:

The idea is that many of the “pink” products actually contribute to breast, and other forms, of cancer. As Angela Wall from Breast Cancer Action (BCA) mentioned, alcohol companies are cashing in on the awareness campaigns spinning the idea that buying a pink ribbon labeled bottle today is supporting breast cancer research all year long even though there is a connection between alcohol and breast cancer. There are also various cosmetics companies participating in the pink ribbon craze meanwhile many of their products which women use daily (such as perfume and lipstick) are loaded with carcinogens. It’s not just liquor and cosmetics, but I’ve noticed that any products that are associated with women are using the pink ribbon, particularly detergents and house cleaners (more gender stereotyping) made from toxic chemicals including known carcinogens.

It’s natural to feel good about buying a product from a company that is contributing money to a good cause like breast cancer prevention. However BCA’s “Think Before You Pink” campaign asks consumers to consider what they are buying in the name of breast cancer awareness. So instead of continuing the cycle and exposing ourselves to things that increase our chances of developing cancer, let’s consider donating directly to breast cancer research organizations, or supporting a friend who is doing “Race for the Cure.”

To return to social media’s role, there has been some pushback from both men and women about the Facebook status campaign and in response many organizations and individuals are encouraging their friends to post legitimate articles on breast cancer if they are planning to participate. At least people can still have the fun of being “sexy” backed up with some relevant and potentially life-saving information. I’m curious to know where this campaign originated because it has done more promotion for Facebook than for breast cancer.

There is a wide variety of breast cancer resources available online and specifically on Facebook. For example: Breast Cancer Awareness not only sells pink ribbon products to raise money for mammograms but also is encouraging interactivity by asking people who “like” them to share a story or post in their status the name of someone they have grown closer to because of breast cancer. The Breast Cancer Campaign, based in England, created an application where users purchase a ribbon for their Facebook page with proceeds going directly to fund research.

However we individually decide to support breast cancer prevention (or not), let’s please take a moment to think about how we are concretely advancing the cause. Did we educate others or ourselves? Did we support research for a cure? Did we lend a listening ear for a survivor that wants to share their story? I think those things can have a bigger impact than pink dryer sheets or perfume.

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/10/11/breast-cancer-awareness-beyond-ribbons-status-updates/feed/7MDGFive.com Unites Arts and Activism for Maternal Healthhttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/10/04/mdgfivecom-unites-arts-activism-maternal-health/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mdgfivecom-unites-arts-activism-maternal-health
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/10/04/mdgfivecom-unites-arts-activism-maternal-health/#commentsMon, 04 Oct 2010 07:31:49 +0000Maternal health isn't exactly what most people consider to be a "sexy" topic and it can be challenging to engage those outside of the health community. Stepping up to the challenge, two artists have joined forces using the Internet to unite arts and activism.

]]>Maternal health isn’t exactly what most people consider to be a “sexy” topic and it can be challenging to engage those outside of the sexual and reproductive health community. Stepping up to the challenge, two artists have joined forces using the power of Internet to unite arts and activism. They created MDGFive.com, an online community raising international awareness about Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 which focuses on reducing maternal mortality and achieving universal access to reproductive health services by 2015.

Grammy-winning singer, Maya Azucena, and Emmy-winning filmmaker Lisa Russell, created MDGFive.com to connect artists of various genres from around the world to give voice to communities that are affected by poor maternal health outcomes. MDG 5 is the most behind schedule of the 8 MDGs but there is still time to make noise and affect change. Visitors to the site can create their own videos, submit photos, music and poems, and then mix it up with other international contributors. The site has already received submissions from Rwanda, Pakistan, the Navajo Nation in the United States, and Croatia.

According to Ms. Azucena, the artists involved have been really excited for the opportunity to have their work exposed to the larger community, outside of their local area. It has become a way for areas that are severely affected by maternal mortality and reproductive health care inequities to make a statement with a larger splash.

The ladies launched a preliminary version of the site at the Women Deliver conference in Washington DC this summer and now the official site is up and running. Ms. Azucena discussed the importance of this project in bridging international artists and activists:

The idea is to make a mash-up of artist statements from all around the world facilitating cross-cultural relationships. It represents the oneness of our conversation, as well as our individuality. The site is geared for young people to have a voice in the world community. MDGFive facilitates making this conversation accessible to the broader community, makes the average individual empowered in this conversation, and it’s done in a creative way that’s easy to share.

I love to see artists using social media for social justice, connecting international communities around a common cause. The Internet has vastly opened up roads to communicate with allies so that ideas are shared, stories are told, movements are bolstered. This is a brilliant way to engage people and get people involved who never considered how maternal mortality and reproductive health access directly affects their lives and their future.

Many reproductive health organizations, including UNFPA, Women Deliver, and Ipas, are behind this campaign along with Digital Reality, and Governess Films. Contribute to the movement, go to MDGFive.com and express yourself!

]]>http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/10/04/mdgfivecom-unites-arts-activism-maternal-health/feed/1Having the “Text” Talkhttp://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2009/01/20/having-text-talk/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=having-text-talk
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2009/01/20/having-text-talk/#commentsTue, 20 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0000The way we teach kids about safe use of the Internet and texting should parallel the way we teach them about safe sex: rather than condemn or forbid behaviors, focus on reducing any associated risks.

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Parents, beware! Locking the doors and issuing curfews are
no longer enough to curb teens’ licentious behavior. At least, that’s what a
spate of recent media stories would have us believe. Seemingly harmless technologies
like texting and the Internet have led to a
spate of teen-scandals from the suburbs to the city. Whether it’s
cheerleaders sending nude photos of themselves to friends via cellphone or
school suspensions due to racy online videos, tech
sexscapades are all over the news.

A clear pattern–or
is it?

For those of us who work with teenagers, the fact that
normal teenage behavior is going online is nothing new. I’ve seen young people
save sexually explicit text messages as proof that they are as experienced as
they claim to be. I’ve noticed teens post suggestive photos on their profiles,
and watched MySpace, instant message and Facebook statuses morph with up-to-the
minute updates on their shifting romantic lives.

In an initial study, UW School of
Medicine and Public Health assistant professor of pediatrics Megan Moreno and a team of
researchers found more than half of
18-year-old MySpace users they studied mentioned sex, violence or substance use
on their Web profiles.

However, yet another study done about teens and tech
found that sexting is not happening at
such an alarming rate as the Cosmo/TRU poll suggested. C.J. Pascoe, the Colorado College assistant sociology professor who worked on the Digital Youth
Report study, surveyed 80 random teens
and went through their inboxes in search of risque photos: "I never saw
it," she said.

Anonymity and
exposure

So has sexting gone wild, or is it an overblown myth trumped
up to scare parents? The answer is neither. Kids communicate so regularly using
social media that it feels like second nature. For many teens, texting and
social networking are vital modes of self-expression – extensions of how they
dress, talk, and act. So those teens who are more eager to explore their sexuality
will be more eager to use technology to that effect, but there’s zero evidence
to suggest that the technology in and of itself is corrupting.

Rather, it’s the way it can be used to "catch"
or humiliate its users that has caused the alarm. At first glance, online and
text-only interactions provide an easy, seemingly safe way of engaging in
typical teenage behavior. The advent of instant messenger in the 90s was
successful with young people partially because it made awkward land-line phone
calls to new friends or potential love interests a thing of the past, allowing
young people to test the social waters without risk.

But along with the apparent sense of anonymity which makes
technology appealing for teens comes a way of preserving interactions in amber,
a chance to seize proof that they are
engaging in grown-up behaviors. It is this
aspect that can come back to haunt them. For instance, that "safe" instant
messenger conversation or photo can be copied by an unscrupulous buddy, pasted,
and sent out to hundreds of people within, well, an instant.

And one of the reasons that "sexting" makes adults
squeamish is that such hard evidence renders teens’ lives impossible to ignore.
Indeed, as Tracy-Clark-Flory points out in this
Salon piece, calling panic on this behavior is fundamentally denying the
inescapable fact of teen sexuality, and the experimentation and
boundary-pushing that comes with it.

Will teens heed
warnings?

Teens, who are simultaneously
obsessed with authenticity and image, will not always be willing to change the
way they use technology at someone else’s suggestion. During the course of the
survey about MySpace use, teens on the online space were sent a follow-up
email warning them about potential consequences of publicizing their
behavior.

A follow-up study aimed to find out whether interventions
would prompt youth to act differently. "Dr. Meg" sent an e-mail to
young MySpace users cautioning them about their posts on sex or substance
abuse, causing about 42% of them to change their profiles within a month.

Some might see this result
as a positive example of what gentle adult intervention can do, and it is. But
even with explicit warnings, many teens did not
act to change their profiles.

Whether or not kids heed adult lectures about risky online
behavior often has to do with how relevant the potential consequences are made.
I spoke to a few former students who said they remained largely unconcerned
about this issue through the first chunk of high school and used MySpace and
Facebook to post party pictures and off-color comments. However, once they
began to be interested in college admissions and job prospects, they
began to make adjustments in how they portrayed themselves online. Warnings can
be helpful, but are most effective in tandem with teens’ evolving conceptions of themselves (this change is apparent, too, when they start changing their email
addresses from words like "sexy" "juicy" "fly"
and "starwarsguy" to their actual names).

Approach the
internet proactively

So what’s an adult, or community, to do when a so-called
sexting scandal, or potential incident comes to their attention? First, refrain from punishing teens for online "indiscretions." Punishment
from schools and parents is often a way to mollify adults in a given situation, but it teaches teens little. Kids are
potentially going to be humiliated by having their private lives exposed to their
peers anyway – and if they’re not embarrassed, then punishment is unlikely to
faze them.

It’s better to approach the matter in a positive way:
engage kids using the technology they’re familiar with. Many sexual health
groups are using texting and the internet to spread safe sex information (as
we explored last spring). It’s vital to expand on these sorts of
projects so that the technology kids use can help them be safe, informed, and
even empowered about the choices they make.

Parents, older siblings and mentors should also look into
the program kids are using and learn how to talk to them about it. If it’s
Facebook or MySpace, adults should find out about the privacy controls and
research the way these interfaces work, so they can have an informed discussion
with teens about how to continue using those media freely, but without
compromising themselves.

Ultimately the way we teach kids about safe online use and
texting should parallel the way we teach them about safe sex: rather than
condemn or forbid behaviors, focus on reducing any associated risks. Arm kids
with sensible, clear information rather than threats, and then let them do
their online thing.